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'Silverstone announcement on Saturday afternoon'

7 July 2012 – Silverstone officials are expected to make a Saturday afternoon announcement over travel and parking plans for tomorrow's British Grand Prix, with weather conditions causing havoc at the Northamptonshire venue so far this weekend.

Huge traffic jams delayed many fans as they entered the circuit on Friday, while people with parking passes were turned away earlier this morning to save space.

"To an extent I guess, but we did have an unprecedented amount of rain fall," Silverstone Managing Director Richard Phillips explained to BBC Sport when asked if the circuit was taken by surprise with the recent weather conditions. "It was a double whammy really. With the rain the campsites then closed down and campers had nowhere to go.

"This forced us onto the grass car parks which wasn't our intention, we wanted to put everyone on the hard car parks. This caused the issue we have to day, it's unfortunate to turn people away.

"Park and ride is difficult to do on Friday. Today we've got it and tomorrow we've got an even bigger one. To cover 800 acres in tarmac or plastic is impractical."

When discussing the travel outlook for Sunday's race, Phillips said he is 'very optimistic' that the situation will be better and fans will endure less disruption.

"We're very optimistic that we've had a bit of a break and that we'll be in business this afternoon," he added. "We'll make an announcement this afternoon."

On Saturday evening, a massive 170 flood warnings were in place over the United Kingdom, with unprecedented levels of rainfall hitting England in particular.

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